A little nostalgia of the colonial past

Top pic is the refurbished Victoria Theatre coming to life again.  In front of the theatre is a monument marking the visit of a Marquis of Dalhouise, the Governor General of British India in 1850 in making Singapore a free port. The pic was taken in a quiet Sat evening. Sitting there one could imagine a few colonial Englishmen appearing from a corner of the road like a few hundred years ago.

There were some flashback of memories of visiting the General Post Office to send telegrams and to pay water and electricity bills. The GPO is now the Fullerton Hotel. And still could remember making my Identity Card at one of the colonial office building, very likely the current Asian Civilisation Centre.

The second pic is the aging semi circular underpath linking Empress Place with the Esplanade, called 'Under the 5 trees' or 'gor chang chiew kar' in Hokien. A famous place for the locals to visit in the evening in the 50s and 60s. Many senior citizens would have walked through this underpath with their girl/boy friends or with their families then.

The bottom pic is the Singapore River at dusk and the glow of some street lamps from the past, still preserved but no longer lit by oil.

Shot these pics a week before National Day and on my way back to Raffles Place station after shooting the NDP rehearsal at Marina Bay. The area was pretty quiet as the crowd was at the NDP.

Kopi Level - Green

Peter Lim buying Valencia Football Club

I am proud of Peter Lim for his successful acquisition of the Spanish football club. He paid it with his own money, from his own pocket, the money that he earned himself. He can splurge on anything he wants. He can even throw his money in the air. He deserves to have fun with every cent of his money. It is his money, not public money, not your money or my money.

Peter Lim is buying glory and fame and fun. If I have that kind of money, I may do the same, be an emperor for a day or something like that. But Peter Lim is no fools. He is not throwing his hard earned money like someone from IMH. He calculated his every move and makes sure every dollar spent is worth it.

Peter Lim’s acquisition of Valencia is not for fun or a little ego trip, or borrowed glory. It is business. He is investing in a football club to make money. It is a commercial transaction. Businessmen that made their fortune do not throw away their money freely and easily. They are looking for real returns.

And Peter Lim will really cry if his investments go bust. But very likely he will be laughing to the banks and everyone would be clapping and cheering for him, for buying foreign talents to make money for him.

Kopi Level - Blue. Thank you.

I also cry for the table tennis team

After more than 10 years of importing foreign players to don our national colours, we have won many medals internationally, including the elusive Olympic silver medal. The table tennis players have worked hard, done well and deserving well paid for their effort.

Where are the real Singaporean table tennis players other than a couple in the reserves and never have the chance to play, maybe a couple of times when we were already assured of a win.

What is the purpose of hiring the foreign players? Did they say that they are here to provide training for our own players, to motivate our players to play for our country? Or are they here for the long haul, to represent our country while our own boys and girls will forever play the bridesmaid or worse, the page boys or flower girls? Is this what we want, is this money well spent?

At least the silly buggers in the football team have a target, to be in the finals of the World Cup by 2010 or something like that. Nevermind if they failed to meet that deadline. They could do so by buying more foreign players and make it in the next World Cup. We have plenty of money. But is there a clear objective for table tennis, a goal and a date to achieve it? Would we have our own national team by 2020 and stop wasting public funds importing more and more foreign players?

Would we still be cheering the foreign players in 2020 and our bridesmaids and page boys would still tag along, happily enjoying the glory attained by the foreigners and carrying the medals on their chests with pride?

The thought of seeing a repeat of 2014 in 2020 or in 2030 makes me cry. Doesn’t anyone understand what stupidity means? Doesn’t anyone feel embarrassed by the whole scheme of things? Would the next appointed President repeat the folly to claim more glory and jump wildly every time we won a medal?

Is this money well spent to build a Singaporean core of talents?

PS: Please do not berate the foreign players. They are just doing what they are paid for. They are young people who just love their sports and their professions. The young have the privilege to be ignorant and to enjoy their blessings.

Kopi Level - Blue.  Thank you.

NASA- The end of the world again?

‘With rising population, depleting natural resources and stretching social divide, civilization could be facing collapse within the next few decades, according to a scientific study funded by NASA. And if you think this is a load of scaremongering, it’s happened before. Remember the Roman Empire?
 
In the report conducted by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri, his “Human And Nature Dynamical” (Handy) model claims “the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history.”....
 
Our modern world might appear to be pretty sure of itself, with advanced technologies helping people live longer and revolutionizing everyday life, but this might be to blame. Using his theoretical model, Motesharri explored several factors and ran different scenarios that could lead to the collapse of industrial civilization, and found a breakdown of society could arise from rapid global population growth and unsustainable resource exploitation.
 
And as resources are depleted, they will become more expensive. This is where he further states that “economic stratification” — where society is further divided based on wealth — will create “Elites” (rich) and “Masses” (poor), with the Elites being responsible for over-consuming, leaving the Masses in famine....’
The above is extracts of a commentary posted in The Real Singapore. It quoted the source of this report as from a mathematician, Safa Motesharri, from NASA. How could this be true? We are still trying very hard to grow our population from 5m to 10m and some wanting more. Where got population explosion, where got problem with depletion of resources?
 
I think this Moesharri guy is referring to the rest of the world except Singapore. Singapore got all the resources money can buy, all the land to take in another 10m people and all the advanced technologies to make life even better. The rest of the world’s civilisation may perish but not in Singapore. Maybe that is the reason why all the billionaires are flocking here. Singapore will not expire because of population explosion or lack of resources.
 
We need more population for growth, so said our experts. What is this nonsense about the end of the world? Don’t believe in NASA. Obviously NASA did not have the best talents on earth. They are all here in Singapore.

Kopi Level - Green

3rd World descending onto Sin City

The unbelieveable happened. A few days ago it was a foreign woman letting her child shitting near a MRT station. The latest, a grown up woman shitting right in the middle of a passage way in Holland Village next to the MRT station, in broad daylight, in the midst of pedestrians passing by. She just squatted there with her pants pulled and faece on the smooth and clean polished granite floor. Can you believe it?
 
I really dunno what to say. In the case of the child, some bloggers even commented that when nature calls, what to do? Must shit means must shit. And here this woman did just that.
 
Please don’t blame it on the Singaporeans. I think this must be a once in 50 years incident. Have never heard of this kind of things happening here in the last 50 years! Real one.
 
I would suggest that all foreigners be invited for an integration party and be briefed that this is not the way we do things here. Just because it is normal in their countries, it is not normal here. Oh, please don’t accept this as the new normal.

Kopi Level - Green